door panel problems...any suggestions?
 

My 05 is having some unsightly issues with the leather door panel inserts. The glue has started to fail and both the drivers and passengers side are falling off. It almost appears as the material itself has shrunken. I thought about removing the whole door panel to see if that area is able to be seperated from the rest of the door panel to make repairing it easier than with the panel still on the door.
Anyone else heard of this issue or have any ideas of what to use for a repair? :dunno:

Hey Grey,

Several members on this and some other forums (Mustangforum, I think) have had this problem. There were some threads about it but they may have been lost in the server crash. Most people have found success in re-gluing their leather insert as the door panel is one piece and very expense from the dealership. Gorilla-glue was used with success from one member, but I don't remember what others were using to re-glue their leather. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

As mentioned, the door panel is one piece. The armrest assembly is permanently attached to the door panel, so the leather insert area cannot be separated from the door panel.

This was what I wanted to know before I said anything... Although I'm sure the armrest isn't 'permanently' any more than the IUP chrome 'rings' around the dash gauge insert is 'permanent' (If you're resourceful enough... And hey, I am! :D )

However, an idea I had heard of (and I'm contemplating, pending removal of said door panel, as my driver's is delaminating a little too) is to use a hypodermic needle and glue, injecting some into the pocket, and gluing it back that way. dunno if it'd work, but it'd be easy(ish) and wouldn't show... unless you overglued it. A pinhead drop amount should spread out pretty good.

Just my .02 on it... But here's a third penny: If they can glue stuff to the shuttle that makes tiles stick through lift off, reentry, and the huge temperature changes and flexing that induces... if they can glue heavy glass mirrors to ceilings... why can't they glue headliners and inserts to *frellin' stay put!*

/I'm sure it's not that simple, but still.

First, the material on the door panel is not leather, it's vinyl. Second, get some 3M Super Adhesive #08090 and it will work great. I previously used a different 3M product and it did work for a while but eventually failed. The #08090 will hold.

Mine did it as well. Superglue did not work. 3M super adhesive has worked so far.

It would be a real pain to take apart and even more challenging to put back together. The armrest is attached to the door panel with molded in plastic studs that are melted to hold it tightly to the door panel. Then the lower mounting points are covered by the sub woofer enclosure which is glued to the door panel. I attached a couple pics of an old panel I have.

Mine is failing in the middle on one door. So do you peel it from some edge then reglue?

or use a seringe to get some right there ?

syringed glue? never heard of it.

I had to use epoxey's ? like that before I'm sure there's a way will a stong will ?

Hmmm..wonder why..

I worked in the carpet industrie a while for a few senior inspectors we could assertain if carpet failure was factory or not some we had to do small repairs .

Whatever adhesive you try, carefully using a hair dryer can help make the vinyl more pliable.

I had the same problem and i tried a few adhesives and the only one that really worked was loctite concrete adhesive. You can get it at home depot. The Florida weather just kept on melting the glue off but since i used the concrete adhesive, its been on for almost a year and havent had any problems again... To glue it back on it took less then 5 min

Mine is just saggin in the middle. Did you peel to an edge to access behind it to glue?

Try some Viagra
these guys got some things I think we used ! I would talk to a good upholstery person & ask what they would use on be it vinal or leather ? even may be as easy as a phone call !

Hi Grey,

My '06 is doing the same. only it's completely peeled down. Someone on this site suggested 3M Super Adhesive #08090.
What has happened is that the foam between the vinyl and the plastic door panel had disintergrated. (Similar to a sagging headliner).
The vinyl and the door panel will have to be cleaned of the foam, before any glue will work.
I am researching what glue to use. The 3M will be my first inquiry.
Thank you to the person who suggested it!
By the way, Ford has officially bagged on this! I got the word from them, yesterday.
I'll post something else when I learn more. I'm meeting with another upholstery guy on Friday.

Tim to the rescue (see attachment)!

Man, this thread is from the graveyard, back from the dead! :D

I had seen this very solution, and once I understood it wasn't the glue, but the foam, I knew it was only a matter of time before I had to undertake this.

My suggestion? Remove the door panel and do it on a table. MUCH easier than doing it in the car. By far.

But except for that, the PDF is dead on. I fixed my pax, I'm waiting for the driver's to let go...again. They'd recently been 'fixed' by a service we had at the dealership. But they didn't scrape the foam off. Ah well...

OH, and a nice little nylon brush goes a *LONG* way to scraping every last scrap of that foam so you have as nice a surface to deal with.

I also recommend taping the channel with tape along the 'outside' edge of it, and wrapping it carefully. That way, you can get the lip of the material glued as well, but not endanger the side of the channel which will show glue in it. And then continue to mask off a little more, then cover the remaning area of the door panel with paper to avoid any drips of the cement.

And a nice plastic blunt end to get that insert's edge into the channel. Much easier.

It was incredibly easy, overall, excepting the very 'back' corner and the middles kept wanting to roll up.

Don't be afraid! Just do it! It's not as bad as I thought... especially lying flat. :nice: